“To Meet with Macbeth,” given by tutor Louis ... - St. John's College

that he sees and holds in his other hand as he exits in a state of singleness becomes the bloody daggers
that he does not see but brings back from the place of murder as if bound to them as manual
extensions. Lady Macbeth takes these daggers in her clean hand to use like a brush to dip into Duncan
and to paint the faces of the grooms; she returns to take his hand, one in color with hers, to a washing
that will not clean and then to a bed in which they will never enjoy conjugal sleep again. This action of
the dagger is one of the greatest actions that Shakespeare ever conceived for the stage.
If blood is what it takes to make actors the master painters of the soul’s motions, as we are
thrilled to witness in Act II of this play, then let there be more of that drink before we inquire into
undoing its effects. The “more” that immediately follows is the discovery of the murder. Macduff
returns from Duncan’s chamber as one who experiences the limit of logos:
Enter Macduff
Macduff.
O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
Cannot conceive nor name thee.
……………………………..
Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves. Awake, awake!
Ring the alarum bell.
(II.iii.66-67, 74-76)
Macduff thus enters the action to wake people up to look upon triple horror—“most sacrilegious
murder,” “a new Gorgon,” “the great doom’s image”—the words he tries are unequal to the sight he
sees (II.iii.69, 74, 80). So his voice, operating at the top of his capacity and our toleration for volume,
turns into the alarum bell and out rush the half-naked sleepers, some to stand shaking in the “great
hand of God” invoked by Banquo, and others (Duncan’s sons) to steal themselves away “when there’s
no mercy left” (II.iii. 132, 148). Let it be noted that Macduff (who does not attend the feast for Duncan)
knocks for entrance after drink has done its work; he cannot speak the horror that he sees in Macbeth’s
house. He is the only character in the play to be called “good” convincingly and more than once (II.iv.20,
IV.ii.16, IV.iii.117). He does not attend Macbeth’s crowning at Scone; instead, he returns home to his
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